DRIVING CONSCIOUSNESS ESTIMATION DEVICE

• US 20180354523A1
• Filed: 06/07/2018
• Published: 12/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: KISHI, Hiroshi
• Granted Patent: US 10,814,880 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2040/0818 Inactivity or incapacity of driver
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2040/0872 Driver physiology
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/22 Psychological state; Stress level or workload
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/225 Direction of gaze
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/801 Lateral distance
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/08 related to drivers or passengers
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/14 Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/021 specially adapted to land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/56 exterior to a vehicle by using sensors mounted on the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/588 Recognition of the road, e.g. of lane markings; Recognition of the vehicle driving pattern in relation to the road
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/597 Recognising the driver's state or behaviour, e.g. attention or drowsiness
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/19 Sensors therefor

Abstract

A driving consciousness estimation device is configured to estimate a driver'"'"'s driving consciousness of a host vehicle as a driving readiness degree. The device includes a viewing target recognition unit configured to recognize a viewing target used for estimating the driving readiness degree based on a result of detection by an external sensor of the host vehicle, a driver'"'"'s line of sight recognition unit configured to recognize a driver'"'"'s line of sight, a viewing reaction index calculation unit configured to calculate a driver'"'"'s viewing reaction index for the viewing target based on the driver'"'"'s line of sight recognized by the driver'"'"'s line of sight recognition unit, and a driving readiness degree estimation unit configured to estimate the driving readiness degree based on the viewing reaction index.

Claims

1. A driving consciousness estimation device that is configured to estimate a driver'"'"'s driving consciousness of a host vehicle as a driving readiness degree, comprising:

a viewing target recognition unit configured to recognize a viewing target used for estimating the driving readiness degree based on a result of detection by an external sensor of the host vehicle;

a driver'"'"'s line of sight recognition unit configured to recognize a driver'"'"'s line of sight;

a viewing reaction index calculation unit configured to calculate a driver'"'"'s viewing reaction index for the viewing target based on the driver'"'"'s line of sight recognized by the driver'"'"'s line of sight recognition unit; and

a driving readiness degree estimation unit configured to estimate the driving readiness degree based on the driver'"'"'s viewing reaction index.

2. The driving consciousness estimation device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a stimulation intensity index calculation unit configured to calculate a stimulation intensity index of the viewing target,

wherein, if the viewing target recognition unit recognizes another vehicle as the viewing target, the stimulation intensity index calculation unit is configured to calculate the stimulation intensity index of the other vehicle based on at least one of a viewing area of the other vehicle and a relative situation between the host vehicle and the other vehicle,

wherein the driving readiness degree estimation unit is configured to estimate the driving readiness degree based on the stimulation intensity index and the driver'"'"'s viewing reaction index.

3. The driving consciousness estimation device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a stimulation intensity index calculation unit configured to calculate a stimulation intensity index of the viewing target,

wherein, if the viewing target recognition unit recognizes a road shape as the viewing target, the stimulation intensity index calculation unit is configured to calculate the stimulation intensity index of the road shape based on at least one of a curvature radius of the road shape and a number of traveling vehicles in the road shape, and

wherein the driving readiness degree estimation unit is configured to estimate the driving readiness degree based on the stimulation intensity index and the driver'"'"'s viewing reaction index.

4. The driving consciousness estimation device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a stimulation intensity index calculation unit configured to calculate a stimulation intensity index of the viewing target,

wherein, if the viewing target recognition unit recognizes an object on a road as the viewing target, the stimulation intensity index calculation unit is configured to calculate the stimulation intensity index of the object based on a viewing area of the object, and

wherein the driving readiness degree estimation unit is configured to estimate the driving readiness degree based on the stimulation intensity index and the driver'"'"'s viewing reaction index.

5. The driving consciousness estimation device according to claim 1, further comprising:

an eye-blink state recognition unit configured to recognize a driver'"'"'s eye-blink state,

wherein the driving readiness degree estimation unit is configured to correct the driving readiness degree based on the driver'"'"'s eye-blink state.

6. The driving consciousness estimation device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a movement range recognition unit configured to recognize a movement range of the driver'"'"'s line of sight based on the driver'"'"'s line of sight recognized by the driver'"'"'s line of sight recognition unit,

wherein the driving readiness degree estimation unit is configured to correct the driving readiness degree based on the movement range.

7. The driving consciousness estimation device according to claim 1, further comprising:

an optical flow recognition unit configured to recognize an optical flow of a landscape in front of the host vehicle based on an image captured by a camera of the host vehicle,

wherein the driving readiness degree estimation unit is configured to correct the driving readiness degree based on the optical flow recognized by the optical flow recognition unit and the driver'"'"'s line of sight recognized by the driver'"'"'s line of sight recognition unit.

8. The driving consciousness estimation device according to claim 1,

wherein the driving readiness degree estimation unit is configured to perform estimations of the driving readiness degrees multiple times for each viewing target, perform weighting of the driving readiness degrees according to the viewing target, and calculate an integrated driving readiness degree based on the driving readiness degrees multiple times estimated within a time set in advance and the result of weighting.